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CHILLICOTHE – The Huntington Huntsmen, under head coach Todd Kellough, finished last season with a 10-13 overall record and a 7-7 mark in conference play, good enough for fifth place in the Scioto Valley Conference.

This season, they'll turn their attention to building on a foundation they laid for themselves in 2013-2014.

The amount of minimal success that the Huntsmen were able to put together last season was, in large part, due to the combined contributions of departed seniors Brian Hall and Lucas Sarver, who both graduated last spring.

Fortunately for Huntington, they'll still retain seniors David Shoemaker and Elijah Shanks.

"David was honorable mention all-SVC last year," said Kellough. "He has a lot of good qualities to him. He's one of the fastest kids in the SVC."

As for Shanks – who led the conference in scoring last year with an output of 17.4 points per game to go along with 10.2 rebounds per contest – it's pretty clear a lot of the program's expectations rests on his shoulders.

"Elijah was 1st team all SVC last year. He led the league in scoring and was second in the league in rebounding," said Kellough. "We're expecting really big things from him on the floor and a lot of leadership (both on) and off of it."

While Shanks and Shoemaker are a huge part of the game plan, it isn't just a two man band. Seniors Michael Carroll and Brad Fraley are expected to log big minutes as well this year.

The fate of the Huntsmen' season will also depend on how well underclassmen DeAndre Viney, Brian Smith, and Levi Nelson adapt to the speed of league play.

Viney is a player Kellough expects a lot out of, maybe more so than the rest.

"(Viney) is very talented on the offensive end," he said. "We're expecting to get some scoring out of him."

Handling the ball for Huntington will be Nelson and Smith, who will be dealing with a roster that has lost some size from last season.

In effect, there will be a change in how the Huntsmen attack each game.

"Last year we were extremely big," said Kellough. "I think it's obvious we're going to change tempo. We're going to play a little faster."

As for expectations, as usual at Huntington, success is expected.

"We're going to be very competitive. We were very competitive last season and I expect the same this year," said Kellough.

Huntington will start their 2014-2015 season December 6 against Hillsboro, in a tip-off classic at Zane Trace High School with game time set for 4:15 p.m.

Girls Basketball

On the girls' side, the Huntsmen are a perfect representation of the program as a whole: on its way up.

This year's group consists of two sophomores, seven juniors, and a lone senior in Baylee Depugh.

Expectations run high going into this season for the Lady Huntsmen as they finished fifth in the SVC with an overall record of 9-15 and 6-8 in conference play.

Entering the latter half of their high school careers, the talented group of juniors are expected to take the next step.

"With the roster that we have, we're really expecting these girls to start to embrace (a mentality of) how high can we get the league," said Snyder. "Can we challenge those top teams? We're going to stick our best in there and see what happens."

Snyder isn't just running a varsity team, but rather the entire program. He's attempting to establish a level of consistency and pride on the court.

"We want them to embrace (the reality that) they have some games under their belt. We need to see some of those results start coming around," said Snyder.

Despite having such a large returning class, Huntington lost four girls to graduation, and with it, thirty percent of their rebounding.

Juniors Carolane Cox (who led the team in rebounds with 5.5 per game last year) and Caylin Ashcraft will be expected to pick up the slack.

Dylana Gragg, also a junior, will be expected to provide leadership and quality basketball on both sides of the floor.

Perhaps the most pressure, however, will lie on the shoulders of junior point guard Ariel Sams.

Sams, who was adorned with first team all-conference and all-district honors last season, led the SVC in scoring with 16.4 points per game.

To go along with that mark, she also led the league in three pointers, with fifty, in route to guiding the Huntsmen to breaking a school record with 109 successful three point tries in 2013-2014.

Despite having the multiple players who can score from anywhere on the floor, Snyder is stressing a "team" philosophy.

"We're trying to build a program around here where it's not just one person who we're going to have to lean on or depend on," he said. "We're trying to get our whole program to a point where whenever we do graduate seniors, we can say, okay, next one up."

The Huntsmen' schedule opens up with Western Brown, November 29, in the Lady Cats Classic at Paint Valley High School, at 1:30 p.m.